EXCLUSIVESweden's darkest hour: Tens of thousands are 調印 up to defend against a 十分な-規模 ロシアの attack. 核の （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕s are selling out. DAVID JONES's 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 報告（する）／憶測 from Nato's new 前線 line...

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Crouched ready for 活動／戦闘, their chilblained 手渡すs hovering nervously beside holstered ピストルs, a 禁止（する）d of 新人 兵士s 直面する 負かす／撃墜する an enemy platoon, を待つing the order to 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

Volunteers from all sections of Swedish society, 老年の between 20 and 55, they have just begun a two-week induction course into the Home Guard (the 同等（の） of Britain’s army reserve). And when the 指揮官’s signal comes, their unreadiness for 戦闘 becomes 明らかな.

As they 格闘する with their unfamiliar Glock 17 handguns, there is much fumbling and under-the-breath 悪口を言う／悪態ing.

Few 発射s 攻撃する，衝突する the 水盤／入り江-形態／調整d helmets of the cardboard 兵士s at whom they are 目的（とする）ing ? an imaginary ロシアの 侵略 軍隊 推定するd to have crossed the 狭くする Baltic 海峡 from Finland and 嵐／襲撃するd Sweden’s south-east coast.

A fortnight from now, however, 中尉／大尉／警部補 Hakan Adolfsson, one of the officers 監督するing the training of these 22 new 新採用するs, at a pine-forested former 冷淡な War army （軍の）野営地，陣営 in the 沿岸の town of Vaddo, is 確信して they will be ready for the 戦場.

‘井戸／弁護士席, at least in a way that doesn’t make them a safety 義務／負債 - to themselves or others,’ he smiles wryly.

For in their darkest hour for almost half a century, the public here are rising gallantly and nobly ? man and woman, young and old, 関わりなく class or ethnicity, 令状s David Jones. Home Guard 新採用する Rebecca Minarik is pictured in training

The Home Guard's 的s are carrying Kalashnikovs, the ロシアの army's 武器 of choice

Young 新採用する Lina Sighurdh says: 'It's a way to 支持する our 自由主義の values in the 直面する of extremism'

Home Guard 新採用するs on a training 演習. After Putin's 侵略 of ウクライナ共和国 in 2022, 29,000 Swedes 適用するd to join up

A 的 of a ロシアの 兵士 with a Kalshnikov. 中尉／大尉／警部補?Hakan Adolfsson says: ‘It may not be [政治上] 訂正する to say they are ロシアのs, but it’s the truth'

Two of the 的s, riddled with 弾丸 穴を開けるs, that were used by the 新採用するs of the Home Guard

However, if old-fashioned 質s such as patriotism, honour and a 決意 to defend one’s nation from tyranny are any 基準, these rookies, whose 演習s I 観察するd on Thursday, will one day make the Swedish 軍の proud.

They are の中で an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の number of 国民s now clamouring to join the Home Guard, as Sweden - newly 入会させるd into Nato this week - 準備するs for a シナリオ みなすd 考えられない after the 冷淡な War ended: a 十分な-規模 ロシアの attack.

The 軍の enrolment 急ぐ began in 2022, after Putin’s 十分な 侵略 of ウクライナ共和国, when 29,000 Swedes 適用するd to join up ? more than six times the usual number. Numbers continue to rise exponentially. In the first two months of this year, 3,000 more 使用／適用s flooded in, 二塁打 the normal 量.

Indeed, such is the 願望（する） of ordinary Swedes to do their bit that the Home Guard has been 軍隊d to take on extra 行政の staff to 扱う the logjam of 使用／適用s.

Compare this with the 悲惨な 状況／情勢 in Britain, where the strength of both the reserve and 正規の／正選手 armies is 落ちるing, 大部分は because of public apathy and underfunding.

Britain’s need for 安全 is hardly いっそう少なく 圧力（をかける）ing than that of the Swedes ? as Defence 長官 認める Shapps pointed out this week when 支援 calls led by the Mail for 軍の spending to be 増加するd from 2.27 to 3 per cent of GDP.

?However, the zeitgeist in Sweden, where blue and yellow 国家の 旗s are waved with gusto again and 国家主義 is no longer a dirty word, is far 除去するd from that in Britain.

Like Shapps, who 警告するs that the UK is moving perilously from a ‘戦後の to pre-war’ 明言する／公表する, Stockholm’s 最高の，を越す 政治家，政治屋s and defence 長，指導者s are （一定の）期間ing out the 脅し Putin 提起する／ポーズをとるs in the starkest 条件.

At a 最近の 安全 会議／協議会, Michael Byden, 最高の 指揮官 of Sweden’s 武装した 軍隊s, 勧めるd the nation’s ten million 国民s to ‘mentally 準備する for the fact that a war could happen in Sweden’.

‘Everyone needs to understand how serious the 状況／情勢 really is,’ he said. ‘If it happens here, do I have things in the 権利 place? What should I do? The more 国民s who have thought about it, and 用意が出来ている, the stronger our society is.’

Yet our two nations are 答える／応じるing to these doom-laden messages in diametrically …に反対するing ways.

Though more than three million Britons under 25 are out of work, the very について言及する of 再提出するing 国家の service to 増加する the Army’s strength from just 75,000 to 125,000 (the 最小限 number of 軍隊／機動隊s we need to 持続する 安全, によれば 軍の 専門家s) invokes howls of 乱暴／暴力を加える.

（船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕 owner Kenneth Clausen with a mannequin wearing a 核の outfit in his （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕 in the town of Ljungby

Daily Mail man David Jones in the heart? of the （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕 that feels like stepping 支援する in time

Clausen in the にわか雨 room of the （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕. Built in 1969, the （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕 is reputedly 有能な of withstanding a direct 攻撃する，衝突する from a 1,100lb 爆弾

悪意のある 指示／教授／教育s and illustrations telling people how to にわか雨 in the event of a 核の attack

証言，証人／目撃する the paroxysms of 怒り／怒る recently 目的（とする）d に向かって Army 長，指導者 General Sir Patrick やすりを削る人／削る機械s when he dared to 示唆する that we should 新採用する a big, 井戸／弁護士席-trained ‘国民 army’ (he stopped short of calling for a return to conscription).

By long-standing tradition, Sweden already operates a system of ‘total civil defence’. This 持つ／拘留するs everyone between the ages of 16 and 70 共同で 責任がある 保護するing the country when its way of life is under 脅し.

At times of war or 高くする，増すd 準備完了, 地元の 当局, 私的な companies, individuals and even 宗教的な groups can be called up to 持続する 必須の services, such as 医療の and food 準備／条項 and care for children and the 年輩の.

This is now swinging into 活動／戦闘. 一方／合間, moves to 回復する the former strength of the army reserve ? which could have quickly mobilised 900,000 闘士，戦闘機s to 会合，会う any attack from the old Soviet Union ? are 井戸／弁護士席 under way.

Sweden’s 正規の／正選手 army will also be 上げるd by 増加するing its 次第で変わる／派遣部隊 of 徴集兵s, who already account for ten per cent of its 軍の 職員／兵員 - although 裁判官ing by the 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing mood, there will be no need to 軍隊 many Swedes to serve their country.

For in their darkest hour for almost half a century, the public here are rising gallantly and nobly ? man and woman, young and old, 関わりなく class or ethnicity - to the vengeful and expansionist enemy ぼんやり現れるing on their eastern 側面に位置する.

Their sense of sacrifice was epitomised by Lina Sighurdh, 24, one of the Home Guard 新採用するs I met. ‘To start with, I am very thankful and 感謝する to be a Swedish 国民,’ replied the master’s degree student (who is rather handily 熟考する／考慮するing ロシアの) when I asked her why she had enlisted.

Swelling with pride in her newly 問題／発行するd uniform, she 追加するd: ‘I feel joining the Home Guard and helping the 国家の defence is a way to 支持する our 自由主義の values in the 直面する of extremism.’ Her 発言／述べるs might almost have been scripted, but they weren’t.

Other 新採用するs 申し込む／申し出d 類似して 深く心に感じた 推論する／理由s for leaving comfortable homes and 職業s to 請け負う the 堅い, 12 hours-a-day course, which 目的（とする）s to teach them the 技術s of forest 戦争 ? the type of 衝突 that might 続いて起こる should ロシアの 軍隊／機動隊s 侵略する.

‘Sweden is usually 中立の, so I don’t think we are going to start a war,’ said Rebecca Minarik, 22, who 作品 in a Stockholm carpentry 蓄える／店. ‘But I feel we may have to defend ourselves. Some countries want to 拡大する.’

Could she 想像する one of these countries 侵略するing Sweden? ‘絶対! And if the ロシアのs come, I’m ready to fight them.’

Listening to these young Swedes 誓約（する）ing to 流出／こぼす 血 for their country was almost surreal at times. Has this 平和主義者 country, famous for its laidback way of life, 全く re-invented itself? It would seem so.

Where now, one wondered, were the 掲示-waving peaceniks who once took to Stockholm’s streets with their 禁止（する）-the-爆弾 スローガンs and anti-American スローガンs?

In いっそう少なく troubled times, Swedish army officers would never have 明示するd the nation ality of the 兵士s engraved on those 狙撃 的s, for 恐れる of 高くする，増すing 緊張.

Now, though, the Swedes are done with all that mealy-mouthed appeasement. With the enemy at the door, there is no use in pretending any more.

As 首相 Ulf Kristersson said this week, his country’s admission to Nato ? formalised in a 旗-raising 儀式 in Washington, last Monday, and 固く結び付けるd as Swedish 軍隊／機動隊s were 派遣（する）d to the 北極の Circle to 参加する the 同盟’s biggest 共同の 演習, 操作／手術 確固たる Defender, since the 落ちる of 共産主義 ? has, at a pen 一打／打撃, ‘ended 200 years of 中立’.

So, when I asked 中尉／大尉／警部補 Adolfsson who his new 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s were supposed to be 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing at, he gave a frank reply. ‘井戸／弁護士席, they are carrying Kalashnikovs (the 武器 of choice for the ロシアの army) so you can （不足などを）補う your own mind,’ he smiled mirthlessly.

Then he 追加するd: ‘It may not be [政治上] 訂正する to say they are ロシアのs, but it’s the truth. The enemies we have today are Russia, but also 中国, North Korea, Iran and Belarus.

‘When I speak to these new 新採用するs, the 脅し from Russia often comes up. They will ask me if the ロシアのs are coming here, and if they do, what is the scariest prospect, and I can’t just pretend everything is 罰金. I have to answer them honestly.’

Kenneth Clausen in his 冷淡な War （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕. It has a forbidding アイロンをかける door, painted in 中心存在-box red

The man 洞穴 inside Clausen's （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕. The 抱擁する subterranean living space （期間が）わたるs two 床に打ち倒すs, with 6ft-厚い 増強するd 固める／コンクリート 塀で囲むs

Kenneth Clausen outside his house in Ljungby. It is up for sale but seemed overvalued at its brochure price of 16 million Swedish krona (£1.2million)

Bunk beds in the （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕, which could 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限 up to 44 people from 放射（能） 毒（薬）ing for several months

The 恐れる that Putin might 試みる／企てる to 別館 Sweden may seem ありそうもない, 特に given his chastening 投機・賭ける into ウクライナ共和国. 見解（をとる）d through the prism of history, however, it becomes more plausible.

衝突s between the two countries date 支援する 1,000 years. During 中世 times, the then-mighty Swedish empire 行うd war on the Novgorod 共和国, a 豊富な 独立した・無所属 明言する／公表する in the north of Russia, 目的（とする）ing to 掴む its lands and 変える it to Catholicism.

早期に skir mishes were usually won by the Swedes, but that changed under Peter the 広大な／多数の／重要な at the turn of the 18th century. In 1721, the 帝国主義の tsar 現れるd 勝利を得た from the 広大な／多数の／重要な Northern War, a titanic struggle that （人命などを）奪う，主張するd more than 500,000 lives on both 味方するs, many killed by 餓死, 病気 and exhaustion.

It ended with Russia a 広大な／多数の／重要な European 超大国 and the Swedish empire in 終点 拒絶する／低下する. And since Putin has あられ／賞賛するd Peter as Russia’s greatest 支配者, he may harbour dreams of emulating his hero.

その上に, while Sweden’s 首相 主張するs the country is far safer inside Nato, some 恐れる its 会員の地位 will only make it more of a 的 for Putin’s 拡張主義.

Already, the Kremlin has 誓約（する）d to 報復する with ‘軍の-technical’ 対策, not least because one of Sweden’s many islands, Gotland, lies just 150 miles from the ロシアの port of Kaliningrad and could be used as the base for a Nato 封鎖 of the Baltic.

Though the Swedes are 解雇する／砲火／射撃d by 愛国的な 感情, therefore, there is a frisson of 苦悩 の中で the 全住民, too.

In readying themselves for war, many people are 準備するing to hunker 負かす／撃墜する, に引き続いて the 政府’s advice to 備蓄（する） 供給（する）s of food and fresh water, and take other steps to 許す many weeks of 施行するd self-依存.

The ultimate nightmare, of course, would be a 核の attack. Mindful of that 可能性, there has been an 沸き立つ in 需要・要求する for 地下組織の 避難所s 有能な of withstanding an 原子の 爆破 and 申し込む／申し出ing 保護 from 落ちる-out.

Ironically, this is 誘発するing a new type of entrepreneur. 勝利者 Angelier, 44, recently left his 職業 in IT to start a company designing and building all manner of 核の （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕s, from basic models with a starting price of around £40,000, to high-end ones costing several times that sum.

Already, he has sold 47 避難所s, and ? in an unintentionally inapt turn of phrase ? 述べるs the success of his new 投機・賭ける as ‘mind-blowing’.

During the 冷淡な War, when Sweden’s 宣言するd 政策 of 非，不，無-忠誠 failed to assuage 恐れるs of Soviet ミサイル strikes, an astonishing number of 核の （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕s ? some 64,000 ? were excavated beneath villages, towns and cities.

Some were 有能な of harbouring just a few 重要な people; the biggest, hewn into Katarina mountain in Stockholm and now used as an 地下組織の car park, could 融通する about 20,000 国民s.

When 共産主義 崩壊（する）d and the 脅し from the East seemed over, some 地元の 当局 sold their 避難所s cheaply to 私的な 買い手s.

With the countdown to war ticking again, however, these same 会議s are now keen to buy them 支援する. 公式の／役人s in the small southern town of Eslov offloaded their 避難所 for just £75,000, several years ago, to two 地元の brothers.

It was the mother of all 取引s. This week, the owners were finalising its resale ? to another municipality ? for more than £800,000, 二塁打 their 初めの asking price and more than ten times the 量 they paid.

This at a time when the 残り／休憩（する） of Sweden’s 所有物／資産／財産 market is 苦しむing the 影響s of a 長引いた 後退，不況 and 4.5 per cent 利益／興味 率s.

Retired impresario Kenneth Clausen’s up-for-sale home is a 変えるd schoolhouse on a 静かな country road outside Ljungby, a historic market town with 16,000 居住（者）s.

As I approached the 木造の house, it looked handsome enough with its grey facade, but it seemed overvalued at its brochure price of 16 million Swedish krona (£1.2million).

Tell that to the army of 見込みのある 買い手s ? almost 500 of them, at the last count, not only from all parts of Sweden but as far afield as London and Berlin ? who have made 調査s about it in the two weeks since it （機の）カム on the market.

The 推論する／理由 for their 利益／興味 lies behind a forbidding アイロンをかける door, painted in 中心存在-box red. It opens into a 抱擁する subterranean living space spanning two 床に打ち倒すs, with 6ft-厚い 増強するd 固める／コンクリート 塀で囲むs.

Bui lt in 1969, it is reputedly 有能な of withstanding a direct 攻撃する，衝突する from a 1,100lb 爆弾 and 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限ing up to 44 people from 放射（能） 毒（薬）ing for several months.

Descending into the echoing 避難所, with its 冷淡な War kitsch decor and 黒人／ボイコット and white photographs of flashpoint places such as 検問所 Charlie, is an eerie experience: like turning the clock 支援する 60 years.

There are 初めの 風刺漫画 製図／抽選s 教えるing 核の 生存者s to にわか雨 and change into hazard 控訴s before entering; an outdated intercom with links to 決定的な 市民の services; 潜水艦-style bunks and washrooms; 広大な 戦車／タンクs for fresh water and ディーゼル; an electricity 発生させる人（物）.

But the strangest feature is a dimly lit, speakeasy-style lounge with a 井戸／弁護士席-在庫／株d 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. Come Armageddon, this is where the last few people left in Sweden, and perhaps the continent, would drink themselves into oblivion.

‘It was a crazy world that we lived in, 支援する then, and it’s crazy again now,’ laments owner Mr Clausen, 64, who 拒絶する／低下するs to say how little he paid for the （船に）燃料を積み込む／（軍）地下えんぺい壕, for 恐れる of ‘embarrassing’ the 地元の 会議.

Unapologetic for 利益（をあげる）ing from Sweden’s 危機, he 計画（する）s to use the million-加える sale proceeds to travel around Europe for a year, with his wife, on a classic American motorbike.

Before the ウクライナ共和国 侵略, 利益／興味 in his 避難所 （機の）カム おもに from sightseers and boozy weekenders who used it as a quirky man 洞穴.

Now, desperate ‘preppers’ ? 納得させるd the apocalypse is coming and planning to do everything they can to ride it out ? want to 回復する it to 初めの 目的.

One 地元の woman pleaded with Mr Clausen to let her, and her four children, stay in it because the terror of an 差し迫った ロシアの attack made them afraid to sleep in their own beds. He 安心させるd her that an attack o n this 田舎の part of Sweden, which has no 決定的な 取り付け・設備s, was ありそうもない.

However, によれば Micael Steneland, the 広い地所 スパイ／執行官 行為／行うing the sale, the 避難所 has already quadrupled the value of the house and, given the 抱擁する level of 利益／興味, he 推定する／予想するs 企て，努力，提案s to rise かなり higher.

His opinion, for what it’s 価値（がある）, is that Putin would never 減少（する） a 核の 爆弾 on Sweden, but might 井戸／弁護士席 侵略する ? to bring his 兵器庫 within closer striking distance of Britain and the West.

Academics such as Henrik Oscarsson, a political science professor at Gothenburg University, think it more likely that Putin will 捜し出す to punish Nato’s newest member in more insidious ways.

In 最近の weeks, for example, ロシアの 明言する／公表する hackers are believed to have orchestrated a number of 破壊的な cyberattacks on important Swedish computer systems.

認める Shapps himself fell 犠牲者 to an 申し立てられた／疑わしい attack from Russia on Thursday, when the GPS signal on the 政府 航空機 taking him 支援する to the UK from Poland was jammed as the 計画（する） flew 近づく the ロシアの exclave of Kaliningrad.?

If, heaven forbid, the delusional ロシアの 大統領，／社長 does go into Peter the 広大な／多数の／重要な 方式, however, Sweden’s 勇敢に立ち向かう defenders are ready to 会合，会う his 侵略 長，率いる on.

Their steely 解決する and 愛国的な spirit should serve as an example to us all. And leave indifferent, indolent young Britons hanging their 長，率いるs in shame.